Project Rogue
by firstconduit
Summary: This is my first attempt at a Halo fic. SI/AU. What if our Earth was transported by the ring explosion at the end of Halo 3 into the Halo universe and my friends and I are forced into an ONI project led by the Red vs Blue antagonist "The Director" Please comment and review. This once again is my first story on here and I need criticism in order to get better. Thank You! Rated M.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Abduction

"How long before we're ready?"

"Two weeks at minimum sir. We were, unprepared for such a large number of them. Hell, there are less Spartan IVs than these classes!"

"You didn't bother to even read the whole thing, did you? Only about fifty are cleared for being Rogues. The rest will become Spartan IVs."

"Won't that cause them to resent the other fifty?"

"Perhaps in the beginning, but they won't care after that, they'll be trained not to."

"Why are we still making Spartans at all though? The Spartan IVs are surely numerous enough already to provide security as we set up our colonies once more."

"That information is, by necessity, classified. To an extent that even I don't know what these Spartans will be doing."

"One last thing, didn't that briefing also say that all these children are coming from a planet that resembles what Earth was like a couple of centuries ago? That somehow, just shows up after the Master Chief wiped out the flood?"

"Yes, it did. ONI speculates that the rings destruction caused reality to morph around it. That once deserted area of space now has a star, eight planets, and a couple billion people within it. All of whom are known in the databases as having lived around five hundred years ago. Now I would suggest you leave before security gets worried, Captain."

Five weeks later: Hamilton High School, Football Training Field, Freshman class

Another long, tiring day of practice before school which would probably force me to write a couple more stupid reports and the like. That is the problem with honors courses, especially when your taking a junior level math class during your freshman year. Granted, I'm not the most advanced student at this school but still within that top ten category. Besides, I'm always tired during those classes due to the drills our D-Line coaches put us through. "Hey Ingram, we should probably head out." Grayson said. He is one of the few friends I've made since moving to Arizona about a month and a half ago. I responded, " All right, but I call one of the lighter orange bags." Once on the field, we have about fifteen minutes before practice starts. Fifteen minutes to just relax and... what the hell is that?! Out of no where pods cylindrical objects start falling from the sky, landing on both ends of the field. Almost like their herding us into the center, seeing that we could only exit the field at the ends due to the walls. "Run!" I shout out before running straight towards our locker room. However, I wasn't fast enough.

Out of One of the pods rose a human figure, a giant one. Clad in, what the fuck? Is that Halo armor? No way, no! If these people are Spartans we are all fucked! The figure fully stepped out into the light, black armor glinting in the sunlight. Oh yeah, these are definitely spartans alright. A voice, surprisingly female, boomed out at me, "I would suggest that you stay back or I will be forced to knock you out." Ah shit. Well, time to see if I can last more than a second against a spartan. Throwing a punch at the spartan, I pull back just as I see her arm coming up. Which is practically half a second. Fortunately I took a minor interest in body language. This chick is about to go to the gut with her legs. As such I step back, barely enough to get out of the way. Catch the punch, roll with it to deliver a quick elbow to the face (Her face mask was like a freakin stone!), duck underneath her punch to the face, and... Get thrown off my feet by someone behind me.

Oh yeah, she has back up too! "Alright buddy, just stay down now!" a male voice says from behind me. I don't think so. I roll in the direction of the voice, kicking his legs out from under him. I scramble up, only to roll to my right side as that damn woman tries tackling me. I dodge left as the guy throws a punch at my midsection I kick back immediately after, but he blocks it. I keep fighting them for a while, barely deflecting and countering their blows. Then I hear a another voice, this one more mechanical then the other two say, "Stop or I will shoot." This green spartan has a battle rifle aimed right at my head. Knowing the legendary skills of spartans, I put my hands behind my head and get on the ground. "Finally! I was beginning to think we would lose that fight. I don't know how he managed to move like that, he hasn't been enhanced yet!" the male said. The robotic one chuckled, then started talking into his headset. Looking around, I noticed that all or at least most of the football team is capturing. As expected, looks of fear and shock are on most of their faces, while the rest are gaping at me. Rightfully so too. I have no idea how I had just lasted against not just one but two spartans in a fight for more than a minute.

After a minute or two of waiting, five pelicans drop down from the sky. The brown one turns faces me. "You're going on first kiddo. I don't want another scene like the one down here to happen on a pelican." he says. Great, now I'm public enemy number one to this guy. Slowly I make my way towards the hold of the pelican he was directing me towards. Inside I see another spartan, this one in grey and red. As I enter I see that he is holding a data pad of some kind. "So your the one that just beat the crap out of Monte and Viva? Bets on you being the class commander are starting to go up. Hell, after that little showing I'd say we could put you in armor right now!" he says excitedly. Me, I'm just taken aback at this guy. How the hell can he be a spartan yet be this laid back at the same time? His shoulders are slumped, his hands are slowly texting with somebody in orbit for most likely a roster sheet, and he has his back to most of me. I could probably hit him before he can react in his current state. Then again he is escorting teens though which could explain that. I finally notice that he is now staring at me. He motions to my seat before asking, "You going to sit down or what?" "Uh, yes of course." I reply. Then I hear a voice that couldn't possibly belong to the person I think it does. Oh shit.

"I can walk on my own you know you jackals!" the closest thing to my best friend said to two ODST troopers who were carrying him one arm apiece. 'Secrets' as he labelled himself finally got shoved into the pelican. "You, new boy, sit near this guy!" the spartan onboard said. When he got close enough to see me, his eyes shot up in surprise. "Well I'll be damned if it ain't that jackal Collin Ingram." he said, pausing slightly before continuing, "Any chance that you know what the hell is going on?" I sighed lightly before telling him what I believed to be going on, "If I'm not mistaken, we are being abducted by spartans. We are most likely going to be inducted into the spartan program as fourth generation spartans, seeing as how these spartans are wearing strange looking armor parts, though some still have familiar parts. I can also say that logic dictates that we are about to enter space in order to dock with a UNSC cruiser. And before you ask, no I do not know the designations for what was supposedly a fictional entity in a video game series for the xbox and xbox 360." I pause for a couple seconds in order to catch my breath and think things through a little bit, "Seeing as this a recruitment operation and that most of us football players are being funneled into pelicans right now, this will be a multi-class project. Also based on the fact that I saw a map of our planet with blinking red dots on it, this isn't the only sight getting raided. That enough of an explanation for you John?"

"You know I don't like my real name so please stop using it. I also agree with most of what you are saying." he says, "Ya know, we are the only two kids on this damn thing. Wonder if we are getting separated from the rest on purpose." Then I hear someone else walk into the bird. "Out of all the people I could get stuck with in an abduction, I get stuck with you two!" the asian chick I sit next to in chinese says. I chuckle before talking to her, "You know, I'm not that bad. I think you are referring to Secrets." "Hey!" "Now onto the important question that I have to ask both you and Secrets," I pause for dramatic effect, "What in bloody hell did you two do to end up in here with me?"

John started scratching the back of his head before replying, "I kinda shot one of those armored up guys in the back with a gun one of the normal looking guys left on a sink in the bathroom. Didn't do a damn thing, the bullet just bounced off like it had hit a barrier." "You mean their shields?" I asked. He shrugged, "I guess. Anyways, that person just got right back up and moved faster than I thought a human could move. He knocked the gun away and held me on the ground with his foot before two of em carried me here."

My eyes moved to Cassandra, she finally took the hint and said, "I tried leaving the school. I snuck out the gym door after warding the guard off with an empty gatorade bottle. There was a guard on the other side of the door. After silently opening it, I inspected him, seeing that he wasn't facing me. His helmet had a cord running to a transmitter on his back. Simple flick of a switch and his signal died. He tried moving away from the building, which let me get out of there. Then I ran into your friends out on the field." "Damn!" was all that John could say. My thoughts exactly buddy. The spartan with us burst out laughing. "I'll be damned if I didn't get the top three recruits for this group." he said. I noticed that the pelican's doors are closing. A voice came up over the intercom, "Hey Rogue, we'll be up in space in a minute. Make sure your charges are strapped in!"

I wasn't expecting our takeoff to be as smooth as it was. No turbulence at all as we climb up above Earth. However I can tell that both Cassandra and John were having a hard time keeping their stomachs in. Can't say that I blame them. Right as I counted to sixty we broke through the atmosphere. Now my wonder is going sky high. Out in front of us, just as I had predicted, is a cruiser. Shade of Glory, is her name. However, what catches my attention is the veritable swarm of pelicans, all of whom were heading towards the cruiser as well. My guess as to the size of this recruitment session was off by at least 5,000, and that is at the very least as well. Eventually we reached a docking bay, gliding right in among the other ones.

To my surprise though, our pelican is moving upwards now. What is going on? Finally the pelican stops moving. The doors open, right out to a dressed up man in a white suit with a black stripe on each side of his torso and probably back as well. The spartan in our pelican ushers us off and we stand in a line in front of this guy. "Welcome to your new lives as Rogues! You three have the designated genetics to safely commence the augmentation process for yourselves. You are not, unlike your other colleagues going to become spartans at least in , you are going to be enhanced much further than that. Individual modifiers will be added to you based on what my data says. Now enough talk, why don't you meet your new classmates." he smiled cheerily after he said that, eager to get all fifty of his personal specimens together. After a quick trip down a couple hallways, we finally entered a large circular room that was two stories tall. In the center of its first floor were strange cubical machines. Each floor had five passageways branching off of it. Probably where our rooms are. As we walk into the room, I notice the array of other kids around me.

The racial mix seems like it is pretty much equal, though at least from what I can tell there are more boys. That is to be expected though. Then I noticed the fact that we were being split up into teams. Most likely to develop a good squad between us. I'm thinking either five groups of ten or ten groups of five. The five groups of ten is more sensible as it allow enough people to take on two objectives at the same time. Unfortunately that is not the case as I see that there are ten colors up on a big screen with names beside each color. Looking for my name, I see that I'm on black team. As is John and Cassandra.

Great, I also got Victoria, a quirky talkative asian from Cali. Not sure what to do with her. Who is the last person on black team? Damn, how did I get stuck with people I know? "Yo Collin!" Grayson's voice boomed from behind me. A smile inserted itself on my face. Yeah, this team is shaping up real well for me. Grayson is a bit slow with anything that doesn't requires only simple thoughts (algebra, history, and lock picking to name a few) but his strength and rather canny ability to see the big picture in chaotic scenarios is an incredible asset in most situations.

I turned to talk to him, but never got a chance to say anything. Someone's voice, louder than a clap of thunder began speaking. "Attention cadets, this is your Commander speaking. Please assemble with your teams at your designated tables. Thank You." Slowly the mass of people around me disintegrated into nothing. Taking in the situation I final found black table.

After catching up with everybody and wondering what the heck we were doing here for about five minutes, someone finally appeared. A rather tall asian man, with stubble on his chin and a prominent scar on the right side of his face. He walked right through us onto the central platform. From there he turned around and somewhat rudely said, "On your feet cadets!" We all immediately got up. He continued, "Incase you haven't realized this yet, you are now part of a UNSC program, Project Rogue. This ship, Shade of Glory, will be your temporary home until we arrive at our official ship. As you can see, you have been separated into ten teams of five. While this is rather inefficient," I could have sworn he was looking right at me when he said that, "it is to help us filter our top recruits out." A large screen appeared behind him with our same teams on it, numbered one through ten. I was a bit startled to find that black team was at the top of the list. "Your team's rank is displayed here. The top two teams upon our docking at our ship will receive most of our attention. The other forty will be given as much training as the regular Spartan IVs with additional focus on stealth, reconnaissance, and assassination." At this people began panicking. "We have a week until docking, I suggest you find out where you are on that ranking board. Now you will be transported to your halls. Goodnight."

Uneasily I walked with the rest of my new squad to our new bunks. None of us were in a talking mood after what had just been revealed to us. Finally we made it to our rooms on the second floor. Each one had a number on it with a title next to it. Two assault spots, one grenadier, one sniper, and one medic. Guess this is the Spartan way of choosing their positions. "Hey guys, think we should probably choose who is doing what right now." I say, thinking through who would be best in which role. John immediately spoke up, "I want my rocket launcher!" "Oh no, that rocket launcher is mine!" Grayson replied. Yes, it is yours Grayson. "Secrets, how about you take assault instead? Grayson is better suited to the task." I say. Fortunately my words do not fall upon deaf ears and Secrets backs off. Well that is two down, now we just gotta get the other three down. I turn towards the two girls, "Decided what you want yet?" "I'll take sniper, she has medic." Cassandra replies, jerking her thumb at Victoria. Which means I'm paired with Secrets. I was kind of hoping for that sniper spot, but I won' deny someone a spot until they severely screw up or someone else is better trained at the position.

Well with that settled, we all hit the sack. Upon entering my room, I find that there is a rather grandiose bed in the room, with a symbol on it that I cannot recognize. Which means this ship is either part of an experimental program or it belongs to ONI. Probably both. There is also a toilet, shower, desk, and a dresser. All my clothes are black. I have nothing to bring in but the clothes I had on when I was taken. With an inventory of all my possessions, I hit the sack knowing that tomorrow will be a true test of my abilities.

I woke not to the sound of an alarm or person, but of myself. I just couldn't sleep. As such I decided to search the ship a bit. Turning down yet another corner, I finally came to what looks to be our training area. The space is massive, but what impresses me is the fact that the entire floor can morph into different environments. I also found, shall we say a key to what exercises we would be doing today. A minor hand to hand combat training exercise. Black team versus the team right below us, red team. Smiling, I walk back to my room.

"Black team and red team will be the first to compete against each other. Remember, last person not lying on the ground sobbing wins." Both teams nodded in recognition. "Good, now fight!" With that the battle started. Let's see, they got three girls and two guys. "I got the big blonde guy." I said motioning to a huge brute on the red team. Guy had to be at least 6'6. John took on a tall blonde chick who looked like the guy I was fighting. Must be related. Grayson took the other guy, a short black guy who looked like he was fast. Victoria and Cassandra got the other two girls. They and their dance partners looked a bit squeamish at the prospect of fighting.

As suspected, the guy I'm fighting is way too slow to hit me. His fists go to where I was five seconds ago. After dodging his fifth punch, I knock him in the ribs with a short kick. Knowing that I shouldn't let my momentum go, I jab at his nose, then as his head starts going back, grab his shoulder and pull it down with his face. He topples over. Jumping on top of him, I pin his arms down with my knees and punch point blank right on his face. He tries to stop me for awhile, but then he goes limp. As his eyes start rolling up, I know he is done. Getting off of him I face the rest of my team. Seeing that Grayson is managing to hold his own and that John is winning, I help out the two girls on our team. Whom haven't thrown a single punch this whole time.

I went easy on the two girls I had to fight. Once they were on the ground I only punched them once in the rib cage. Neither got up. John had also finished his adversary. I still had to help Grayson however. He was having trouble tracking his small target. So I told John to step in and help him. Soon after that guy went down the announcer declared black team the victors before moving on to the other teams. I also noticed that red had dropped to fourth place. Poor fools. Don't mess with me next time. When we reached the observation area where I had been earlier, the other team members either stared at the ground or looked at us with disbelief. "Black team, you are wanted in the main room ASAP." the announcer, well, announced. I began thinking about what we could possibly wanted for. Our last showing wasn't all that impressive to be honest. Cassandra and Victoria had cowered in the corner the whole time.

We walked into the main room to find that asian guy who had talked to us last night waiting for us. "Well, why are we up here sir?" I asked, crossing my arms and staring right at him. He didn't even back down much to my detriment. One would think that after my friends and I's showing that he would be slightly afraid. He simply cocked a smile at my outburst. Then he started talking, "Nice performance on the training floor blacks. Your making my choice to put you at the top seem like a wise one. Now for why your here, there are two things. One, I wanted to introduce myself to you, I am going to simply be called the Conductor. All you really need to know about me is that I'm going to be assigning every mission you receive while being trained." he pauses and stares at the leader board, "Secondly, you will all be receiving your enhancements much earlier than normal. As in Friday morning." Shit, that's only two days from now! A question bubbles to the surface that I find extremely interesting, "What types of enhancements sir?" He is still staring at the leader board when he says, " All of you will be getting the basic spartan treatments which increase speed, strength, and durability. However your individual enhancements are being custom fitted to your psyche. Collin, since you asked, your going to be getting reflex boosters in order to make time around you seem to move slower, much slower while you move at your normal pace. The other major one is the addition of a web interface directly linked to your brain. Anything connected to charged negative ions can be accessed, including neural pathways in humans. In effect mind reading/control." Not the answer I was expecting to be sure.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Rankings

To be honest, I'm not sure what happened to me. One day I just woke up, went to school like normal, and then got abducted into a universe that everyone thought was fictional. The Halo universe to be exact. Now, I've only been on a damn UNSC ship for four days, but those feelings of home sickness are starting to appear. Fortunately my feelings have always been kept in check, so I was only experiencing a slight weariness and want to go back home. My teammates however have begun breaking down. Stupid at a time like this to be honest. In exactly two hours from now we would all be going under in order to get our augmentations. The docs had already told me that these procedures would be immensely painful. Everyone else knew that as well. John and Grayson as usual had taken the news joyfully, both wanting to become superhuman in a way. Victoria also took the news decently. She didn't freak out, only scowl and mumble a couple of words under her breath. It was Cassandra I'd had to comfort. She isn't what one would think of as being a spartan (or in our case, Rogues). She was finally asleep over in her room. Grayson and Victoria were hanging out in my room right now. John was messing around with the battle rifle we had found down in the 'fake' range in the training room. Guess that is his way to deal with nervousness. After all, if you knew that you could die today from some chemicals pumping through your brain, wouldn't you be a bit nervous?

"So has the Conductor told you what your unique augmentations are?" I asked them. As far as I know of, I'm the only one who has gotten an inkling of what will happen to me. Grayson smiled before saying, "Finally he told me. My skin is getting laced with steel to increase my protection. He also said that the strength enhancers on me would be tuned up, allowing me to carry more ammo." "And I'm getting an in built bio-foam generator, to well, increase our teams amount of bio-foam." Victoria chimed in. Good to know that I wasn't the only odd one out. A rather annoying alarm went off in all of our bedrooms, followed by the message, "Black team, please report to the med lab for augmentation procedures." Without saying a word we got up and left, making sure to wake both John and Cassandra before moving on. The lab was split into five sections with five huge pods, each marked one marked with one of our names on it. I ended up getting the one closest to the view screen, to the right and bottom of the lab. John and I simply shook our heads at one another. We knew that we would likely die, no need to dwell on the fact. Grayson and I shoved each other playfully. "You ready for this Grayson?" I asked. He nodded. "I was born ready for this." he replied. The girls both gave hugs to the other two guys. Then to me. Much to my surprise however, Cassandra actually held on to me for a little while. I could feel her shuddering and I knew how terrified she was. Whispering, I told her, "Don't worry, we'll all come out of this. Especially you. So don't worry." Finally she let go, nodding her head slowly in response. The docs gently guided her to her pod area. After we were all near our pods, curtains were put up in between each section to give us privacy. Then I was told to strip.

Slowly I got into the cylindrical, clear container. The roof of it was at least four feet taller than I am. The sides were the same way. Grimacing, I realized that this meant I was to be as big as the pod when these ONI spooks get done with me. A doc came and attached a breathing device over my mouth. Even while I'm unconscious it will keep me from dying. Then came the needles. Now, I realize that most people now a days get their basic flu shots including me, but I still have a deathly fear of needles. I hate shots, much less the IVs they are giving me now. Soon the drugs are taking effect however. The world is growing dimmer and dimmer. I do feel a slight fluid rushing against my leg, but I'm to out of it to effectively make sense of this phenomena. Then the world stopped being visible.

Pain ripped through me, seemingly burning my entire skeleton into ash. My skin felt as though it was being first pulled off of me and then sown back onto my decaying body. Muscles spasmed and seemed to take on a suicidal fight in between themselves. But worst of all was my head however. Eyes felt as though a large needle was repeatedly stabbed into them, all over any non-hurt eye area. My skull felt as though it was being cracked and then melted repeatedly. The brain itself felt as though it was being stressed twenty times harder than it should be. Images flooded through my brain, undoubtably due to my new implant. Flashes of death, destruction, and creatures of flesh and metal. What the hell were those things? Something told me that those beings were us Rogues. Perhaps in the future, judging by the fact that those beings were armored in strange sets of MJOLNIR armor. The plates were less bulky than normal and the design looked rather closer to Navy Seal gear than medieval knight armor. I was starting to think about the weapons the figures had held, but another spike of pain lanced through me. And light started to fill the darkness.

I awoke about a day after my final surgery was finished to find myself as close to being a different person as is physically possible. I am in all probability above nine and a half feet tall and my eye color is now a mix of blue, red, and green. A side effect of my reaction implants. A couple of red cracks where the brain implant stuck out. Fortunately they were only on the top and back of my head, so nobody would notice them until they pass me. Plus with the fact that I keep my hair about an inch above my head on top would keep the top ones from ever being noticed. That brings me back to the brain implant. It was so weird to "feel" the electronics around me. Like a constant buzzing in the back of my head. People were much harder to detect though not impossible. You see, everyone has a small bit of electricity in them. Most of it is concentrated around our brains. Due to this, I could tap into the stream accessing thoughts and perhaps memories. I could also disrupt that stream for... interesting results. While I wouldn't call it mind control, I can cause certain nerves to go off, causing that person's muscle to spasm. In the fingers this could cause them to fire their gun or break the fingers. In the heart, well, lets just say that one unfortunate doctor now has a giant hole where his left lung used to be.

Then there is Greyson who looks like something out of terminator. He stands a couple inches higher than me. His entire torso is sheafed in metal (his skin shows but only slightly), along with his thighs and forearms. I had personally seen him pick up and throw a warthog with very little exertion. Victoria's right arm is gone from the elbow, replaced with a robotic forearm and hand containing a miniature energy generator, a general purpose medicine creator, and medical analysis device. She seemed rather pleased with the equipment, though I will probably have to enhance it for her eventually. John finally found out what his augmentation was. A forerunner device that creates a stream of radioactive particles at the target was implanted on both of his shoulders. He is also the tallest Rogue, standing close to eleven feet high. However, the supposedly second most advanced spartan in our group was Cassandra. Though she only stood one or two inches above Victoria's eight four, she would probably be a match for John in the strength department due to nerve fluctuation monitors that controlled how much of her muscle was used were. It also decreased her reaction time to about a ten times mine, a huge leap above most people's. But her most interesting feature was her in built cloaking system. It was fused directly on her spine, between her shoulder blades. It activated just like any other muscle in her body. Supposedly it also acts like her other muscles, growing stronger every time she uses it. Of course using it too much would result in exhaustion and movement impairment.

It was the ensuing test after this against the other teams that had me bristling with anticipation though. The scenario was rather unbalanced in our favor, after all the other teams (all of them mind you) were only armed with assault rifles, pistols, battle rifles, and a rocket launcher against us with nothing but our abilities. No, the odds say that we smash them ninety nine point nine nine nine nine percent of the time.

Five minutes later: This is too easy. I finally found my objective, blue team huddled inside of one of the four bunkers on this training room landscape. The simulation itself is very impressive. Gunfire could be heard in the distance, smoke rose from the many miniature fires lit in the area, and corpses lay on the ground in puddles of blood. When we had initially entered the area, I had done a bit of recon on the other teams. They had all started in the same place, so I used that opportunity to see who had the rocket launcher. The blues had it. After that we had split into smaller groups. John, Victoria, and Greyson where to bring attention to themselves. I elected to track down blue team and take care of the rocket launcher. Cassandra would bring down people from behind while they were focused on the others. Now my objective is nearly done. Reaching out, I finally secured a link to the rocket launcher guy's system. Then I input the command to pull the trigger. Purple paint shot out from the bunker. Terminating my connection with the now unconscious teen, I allowed myself a small smirk. "Collin, you mind helping us out over here?" John's voice came out over my head radio. Sighing slightly before turning and running towards our designated kill box, I replied, "Coming!"

It was as we were mopping up the remaining opposition that I noticed something. White team, the team in second place wasn't here. Then the realization of why they weren't here hit me. Black team was not the only ones to receive augmentations. Plus we were getting to our new 'home' tomorrow, so I guess I'll just wait till then to see what the other set of Rogues looks like.

After thinking all of last night, I finally stood in front of the docking tube that extended out very slowly. Then it finally stopped. The conductor moved in front of our group. "Time to meet your new lives Rogues. Come along now." he said. With that we followed him on to what can only be described as a miniature planetoid. That is how big this ship is in comparison to the one we are currently on. I was guessing that at least fifty dreadnoughts wouldn't be able to fill this beast. The amount of electronic power being generated was impressive, matching what I would expect from a planet. "Sir, what is this place?" I asked. "This is the director's personal flagship. An entire level has been devoted to Project Rogue." he answered. Silently we followed the conductor until he finally came to a stop in front of a level entitled Project Rogue. Then he turned towards me. "You are the second of the Director's main projects. The other one is Project Freelancer. In order to introduce yourselves, we have devised a little sparring match between you. It will happen in one week, in order to get you your armor outfitted." he said. "Now we get to the good part!" John said from behind me. I couldn't agree with him more.

Two days later: This armor was surprisingly comfortable. Now I see why people in Halo always wear it. "Please pick your colors sir." a techies voice said. "Dark red, black, and trim it in gold. Visor in silver." I said. "Acknowledged." she replied. This armor of mine was a prototype design, meant to increase my weapons stability. The armor was fittingly named 'Rogue'. An addition to the back boosted my electricity abilities. I had insisted that I be the last person on my team to receive my armor. There were only eight types. One suit for each type. Apparently all of this stuff was simply modified Spartan IV armor. I somehow ended up with the Rogue armor. Victoria took the Operator type, which lends itself to the fact that she probably wants to be our vehicle specialist as well. Greyson decided to take the Pathfinder armor set. They should have renamed it the gunner armor. Would have made more sense. Cassandra eventually took the Wet-work suit, mostly to enhance her already formidable stealth capabilities. John took the Stalker armor. His was modified with the ability to tag any enemies the rest of the team has spotted and add them to his HUD. In order to minimize confusion, the radius only extended to about 150 feet around him.

With our armor on finally and the abilities set, we finally moved onto our fights for today. They all had names after the states in the United States of America. They also had a couple weeks of experience under their belts. And I was apparently facing their best member, an agent named Tex. She was a female, wore the Mark 6 version of MJOLNIR armor, and was at least partially robotic. Did I also mention that she took on three members of her own group and kicked their asses in? Yeah, this wasn't going to be pretty.

The black armored figure slowly walked onto the field. Her entire stance read "I'm gonna kill you mother fucker!" I stood my ground, hoping I was ready for her strikes. Then she struck. The force of the blow, even while blocked, pushed me back a few feet. Dodging under her next one, I threw in a left hook. She tried grabbing for me, but I saw the counter and pulled back. Then she seemed to slow down. Not to a standstill but extremely slow in comparison to me. There goes my implant. Grabbing the kick aimed at my face, I pulled her towards me. Then the rain of blows from me came. At the rate I was punching, even Cassandra would have extreme trouble keeping up. Left, right, uppercut, spin out of the way, strike her back once, twice. Take a step back. Reorient yourself, kick at left leg, pull in her stumbling right punch. Punch her in the stomach, bring knee up as she falls backwards. It was as she tried crawling away that a horn sounded. Smirking, I walked out of the room. Guess Tex ain't that tough after all. No, don't let this victory get to your head. She could quite possibly best me when it comes to firearms. Thinking of that, I dropped the smirk.

I came back to a room full of very happy Rogues and by contrast very shocked Freelancers. One was noticeably happy however, the one in the light blue/greenish color on her. Carolina I'll bet! Shit, I hope the others don't screw up too badly. I just set one hell of a precedent. The next fight was Carolina and Cassandra. This one ought to be interesting. Sighing audibly, I slowed down myself to 'normal' levels. I wouldn't be able to enjoy myself if the fighters seem like their going a out the speed of a snail.

Damn that bitch Carolina moves fast. Not my speed, but surely equal to Cassandra's speed. She is probably going to lose due to simple lack of experience. So far she is holding her off but... there! A slight turning of her body after a punch left her open to Carolina. Carolina banged her fist directly against the Cassandra's face plate. Then Carolina jumped up and delivered a roundhouse kick right to Cassandra's head. "No!" I cried out as Cassandra flew across the air for a couple feet before impacting the ground. She didn't even move after that. The horn sounded and medics pulled her limp body into the nearby med bay. I rushed in after them, standing just outside the main room in a glass walled corridor. Rage boiled within me as I watched them work on her. Even though I had beat the living shit out of Tex, nothing I did during that fight could've killed her. What Carolina had just done was brutality at its worst. I wanted to release my anger on someone now. And I know just the target. Agent York.

The other fights went pretty well for our side. Greyson barely lost to Maine after Maine charged into the wall with him. John actually won his, though in part I think his anger at what had happened to Cassandra helped him. Agent Washington ended up having hang time after a massive uppercut to his body. Victoria was put up a good fight against North Dakota, but ultimately lost due to her not being a great CQC person. North however was kind in his defeat of her, simply grappling her into a standstill. Then I got my chance for revenge. York, though being the Freelancer's CQC expert, didn't have my speed or agility. I knew though that I couldn't put this guy in the hospital like Carolina did to Cassandra. No, I'd just beat the living shit out of him to prove my point.

Sprinting at him from the get-go, he was barely bringing his fists up when my fist hit his face. As he fell backwards, I grabbed his arm and threw him into a wall. As he started toppling forward, I swept his legs out from under him. He tried getting up, but I grabbed him by the throat. "Listen to me York. Tell your girlfriend Carolina that the next time she sends one of my teammates to the ER, I will hurt one of you Freelancers." I said in as menacing a voice as I could manage, and with this armor on, It was pretty damn menacing. Then I threw him at the area where the rest of us were standing. I checked to make sure he was alright before leaving the ring. But then Maine, Wyoming, Carolina, and C.T. ran out onto the floor. Oh shit.

Duck under Wyoming's fist, punch C.T.'s gut, sidestep Carolina's kick letting it hit Maine full on in the face, and sweep Carolina's other leg out from under her. As she fell I punched into her stomach as hard as I possibly could. She hit the floor and grabbed her torso in pain. Grabbing C.T., I threw her into Wyoming. They were both out. Jumped over Maine and brought down a direct chop on his back. He tried taking a few more steps but then fell over unconscious. Slowly I walked over to where Carolina was curled up in pain. "Remember this the next time y'all think about trying to kill my teammates." I said as she stared up at me. Then I simply walked away.

The next day: "Welcome to the ranking board system. As you can see, your performance yesterday has put you into specific spots along with the Freelancers." the Conductor explained. A holographic board came up on the side of the main hub, a control room that stood in between the Freelancer floor and ours. The Freelancers were in the room with us. The tension was palpable after what had happened yesterday. Carolina was avoiding even a glancing look at me. Tex was breaking the freaking assault rifle in her hands. All of us were staring at the board as it initialized. My first name popped up on the board, in first. Tex came in second, Carolina third, Maine fourth, John fifth, Cassandra surprisingly sixth, Greyson seventh, York eighth, Washington ninth, and North tenth. Victoria, Wyoming, C.T. and South weren't even on the board. Damn South looked pissed. "How the hell did I fall off the board to a bunch of noobs!?" South demanded. "If you could actually be as calm as your brother, you might end up on that board eventually." a gruff southern voice said from behind me. The Director's voice.

He moved so as to stand in front of us. "Now the way I see it, we have a lot of new agents with no names. I noticed that Carolina already asked our current leader that." he said, nodding in my direction, "As such, we have come up with a category of names for you to choose. Cities in the US of A." Well at least I knew what I was taking. I said, "I'll take Phoenix sir." "Request granted Phoenix." he replied, "John next." John seemed to ponder this for awhile before saying, "Guess I'm getting Orlando." "Cassandra?" "I'll go by Cruz." she said. "Greyson?". He said, "Boston for me sir." "Victoria?" "New Orleans is now taken." she said smugly. On the screen our names were already replaced with our new ones. Welcome to your life Agent Phoenix!

One Week Later: Agh! My hands went up to my head again for what seems like the hundredth time today. The docs had warned me not to try going full speed until an AI could be found but like the idiot I am I ignored their advice. Now I'm probably going to have my ass handed to me by Tex. Earlier today I had challenged her to a light duel on the training room floor. That was before these waves of pain hit me head on during my warmups, which was simply running twenty miles in under five minutes. Half way through something snapped and I literally hit the ground, nearly unconscious from what felt like a thousand nails being stabbed into me at random locations. My muscles had spasmed on their own, many going at different speeds than the rest of my muscles. The resulting tension almost broke my left leg and arm. Ah! Dammit, just a little bit farther you fool! Finally I reached the door to the training room, feeling half dead.

My head was racing right now with the possibilities of what might be going on in my body. Doctors said that the neural signals weren't being transmitted correctly due to overextension of my abilities. Too little too late for that information now though. There is no way I am letting Tex get the satisfaction of knowing that I had backed out of a fight with her. The door parted to reveal the angel of death herself. She already had her hands up, probably out of fear of me instantly trying to hit her. No, that isn't how I can play today unfortunately. Tex at last noticed this, her hands lowering a bit before she asked, "What's wrong Phoenix? Feel like toying with me today? Just get this over with already. I want to be out of the... med bay before the end of today." I shook my head, before saying, "That's not how it is going down today. Incase you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly moving my fastest." I paused for dramatic effect, "Today you have the advantage Tex, or should I say Allison?" Inside my helmet I smiled at her reaction. She literally froze up for a couple of seconds. "How do you know that name?" she asked, her tone threatening. I overly exaggerated a shrug before replying, "Oh, ya know, the usual extremely classified files that only the Director and you have access to that details a surely impossible robot that was never created to house the side affect of a severely illegal AI being created without ONI's permission on the remnants of the colony Harvest. Just perfectly normal information, right?" I barely sidestepped her punch in time. I tried to hit her, but she dodged it and hit me right in the gut. Damn her punches sting like all get out! Ow! She was already bringing her leg up to kick me. I batted it aside. She just kept on trying to break me with her relentless attacks, but I just stood there and took it all. "Just give up why don't you! Or at least attack!" she growled after about five minutes of constant blocking and dodging. I knew I wouldn't be able to hit her without risk of injury, but I could block her offensives effectively enough to void out her stamina. "Tex, we could go on like this forever and neither of us would win. How about we call it a day?" It took three more minutes of fighting before she finally consented. "Hey Phoenix, you got some real guts to still come face me when your wounded and your advantages are gone. You might not be such a wuss after all." she said, and I knew that was most likely as close to a compliment as I would get. "Thanks Allison, and don't worry, I won't let anyone else know your secret. Just don't expect to be number one again anytime soon!" I replied. "All Rogues and Freelancers are to report to the hub in one hour for a mission briefing." the Director's voice announced.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: To those that have been wondering, my character is being written as someone who has been watching Red VS Blue. And while they don't outright say it, Carolina and York have something going on between them. The whole point of this little venture is to see how badly I can mess up the timeline by adding myself into the mix. Also of note, I'm doing this in the situation where Halo 3 has already taken place in order to make things run a little smoother for what I'm planning (insert evil laugh here)! WARNING: this chapter provides a graphic description of suffocation. You have been warned. This one is a lot shorter than my other two, but that is because it is meant to be that way.

Chapter Three: The Hardest Lesson

"I have called you all here today to undertake what could be considered a 'minor' test of your abilities." the table in front off us suddenly shifts into what looks to be a space station as the Director continues, "As I hope you Rogues can remember, there were to be ten of you training here." Oh shit, I totally forgot about them. In fact, I haven't even seen a trace of them ever since docking here. And if this mission revolves around them... crap! "They went, uh, rogue didn't they?" I ask, a hand stroking my chin as I pondered the implications of this information. The Director unsurprisingly doesn't even look slightly unnerved by the fact that I figured it out, "Yes, white team did go rogue. It was after they received their augmentations. We believe that it was caused by the death of one of their number during the muscle growth surgeries." Cassandra, no, Agent Cruz trembled slightly at the mention of the surgeries. Can't say that I don't sympathize with her. The Director continued, "Evidence of the pelican they stole showed up on a mobile asteroid colony in the Ming sector. About an hour ago the team made their move on the central command room. They are threatening to kill all the civilians aboard with them at the slightest movement from the UNSC." a ship very similar to what (I think) a prowler looks like. "You will be dropped off on arm A of the station which is here." the Director said, pointing at one of the four equally sized beams that extended from the wide cone structure that formed the base, "These arms contain all of the civilian population, due to their apartments being put on them. The central structure is where everything else besides the apartments are at. Including life support. Needless to say, there are only so many emergency depressurization suits within the apartments, though the ones they do have are going to the women and children. Nobody above the age of thirty was allowed onboard in order to get rid of the unnecessary resource waste us old people bring with us."

Whom, not very shocking when you think about how desperate the UNSC was during the war. They were trying anything that might result in some humans being left alive. But if that was what this station's purpose was, then wouldn't there also be a wealth of military related data on their computers? An idea slowly played itself across my mind. It might work.

"You will cross the arm until you come to where the elevators that connect all four of the arms to the center. From there you will have to climb the elevator cables all the way up to the control room. Which is only ten floors. No major challenge for y'all I'll assume?" he asked. My team and I faced straight ahead, replying, "No sir." Our voices sounded out in unison with the Freelancers. The Director smiled before finishing, "Phoenix and Carolina, I am giving you jurisdiction on the squad breakdown. You can only have one squad. You'll be boarding the prowler in exactly one hour and fifteen minutes, dismissed." With that he walked away, off too what I'm assuming is either this ships control room or his private quarters. Then I picked up a very strange signal. Its electronic signature corresponded with the Director's. WTF? Searching more deeply, I found a trail. Faint but still there, leading to a, person? No, an AI! Wait a second, wasn't the Alpha created off of the Director? No, there is no way this, entity, can be the Alp... "Phoenix, you alright?" Carolina asked. Whoa, snapping back into reality now.

"Yeah I'm fine Carolina, was just thinking about who to put on the teams. This mission is almost entirely about stealth. As such, I figure we should take Cruz, North, Washington, you, me, and C.T. What were you thinking?" I asked. Carolina was silent a sec before putting out her list, "Cruz, North, York, myself, you, and South. Though now that you mention it, C.T. would make a better choice over South. But perhaps Wyoming is better than both of them?" "No, this mission needs teamwork, something that both Wyoming and South lack. Though I do agree with your pick about York. How about we switch C.T. out and put in York. The team would be Cruz, North, York, you, me, and Washington." She nodded. "Sounds good to me."

Five hours later: "We almost to the top?" Washington asked via comlink. Almost, there! I swung my feet up over the edge along with the rest of my body. As I began pulling him and the others up I said, "Does that answer your questions?" He simply nodded. Now that everyone was up, I took a look at where our objective was. "Cruz, find the one in white and red armor. Take him out first. I'll take out their second in command, the guy in white and brown armor." Then Carolina started giving orders, "The rest of you, converge on the other two after these two start shooting."

"One, two, three, go!" I shouted as Cassandra dropped two shotgun blasts right into the leader's back. At the same time my DMR seven round burst thudded into the second in commands both went down. Carolina and York took out the third guy. Wash and North focused fire on the fourth guy, bringing him down. For some reason, the back of my mind said that this had been too easy... an alarm went off. All the monitors turned into the same screen, a four pieced puzzle that had a camera on each of the arms. As the oxygen within them suddenly dwindled down to nothing in a matter of seconds. People horridly grasping at their throats, trying to breath. Some stabbed each other in order to escape their slow fates. A group of people caught my eye in particular. A mother and father with their four kids, three girls and one little boy. They were hugging each other and crying, trying to sob when there was no air to sob into. The little boy began slowly kneeling towards the ground his eyes starting to glass over. The mother caught him up in her arms, though she too, as was the rest of the family at this point, began falling unconscious. Their hands lost their grip and their bodies sagged in one direction or another before falling over, dead. All because of my stupidity.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: A is for Artificial

"Phoenix, um, Carolina doesn't want you to kill her for this so she told me to tell you. White team was never here, these guys have been tagged as traitorous ODSTs. White team hooked the station's fail safe into their vitals." Wash cautiously said. Sighing, I slowly pulled myself away from the corpses of the family I had just killed. Turning towards him I balled my fists up tightly for a second before unclenching. I said, "I know Washington. The Director knew about this way before we ever came to this station." If it wasn't for the helmet, I'm sure Washington was looking absolutely confused at this point. He asked, "Then why are we here if our targets are somewhere else? What was our real objective?" In answer I held out the object in my hand. What looked to be a datachip rested in the palm of my hand. It glowed faintly red, which some might consider unusual seeing that they were normally a blue color. "This entire thing was an intel operation?" Washington asked indignantly, "What goddam intel is worth all of these fucking lives Phoenix!?" "Watch and you'll find out now won't you?" I replied cooly. On the central projection table a video recording came up.

A man no bigger than I used to be came up, dressed sharply in a green and white lab suit very much reminiscent of something out of another video game called Mass Effect. "Log 5: Date is November 29, 2552. I am very much glad to report that my plan is going along as was planned. Project Freelancer has been successfully infiltrated by one very uncommitted person." the man paused and turned to look at something to his right before continuing, "I have also found what one could consider to be my greatest achievement yet. The one thing the Director holds dear. As a precautionary measure, I have taken the liberty of storing this data in one of the hundreds of thousands of last resort space stations. That is all for today. End Log."

Pulling the tiny little chip out of its socket, I stuck it in the socket in the back of my helmet. Even with helmets on, some expressions still shine through our armor. And right now that expression was one of disbelief. Without a word to any of them, I slowly walked (slowly for me anyways) back to airlock the prowler was attached to.

It was a sullen flight back to say the least. Everyone kept warily kept their distance from me, not understanding what I had done nor why I had done it. All of them except for Santa Cruz and Carolina. Carolina was giving me a death glare now that our helmets were off. Probably due to her issues with not having the highest ranking on the leader board. I had already seen her fight with Tex about being number three instead of at least two. Also judging from the series Carolina dislikes people that she believes are favorites of the Director. Which quite explains the death glare I am currently receiving. It was Santa Cruz that has me questioning the motives. She simply sat next to me in the cargo hold on one side while the rest of them sat on the other. "Might I ask why you actually trust me instead of avoiding me like the plague?" I asked.

"Your our leader. Why wouldn't I trust you?" she replied.

"If it was just that you wouldn't be fiddling all over the place with your weapons. It is a sign of nervousness in you and as far as I can tell Orlando as well." I said as I turned to take her in fully, "Every time your around me you get fidgety. Why?"

"I... I, um, I just start preparing for a fight. That is all. Nothing unusual whatsoever." she said, turning her head away from mine. Sure Cruz, sure. Damn she is easy to read. Luckily for her, the feeling is mutual. Time to show it.

Taking a light grasp of her chin, I gently pull her face back until I can see both of her furiously blushing cheeks. Leaning in a barely kiss her lips before pulling back, looking for a response in her eyes. She smiled and I mentally melted.

Then Orlando's voice had to ruin my moment, "Will you two love birds cut it out?" Putting my arm out in his general direction I gave him the bird. That earned a chuckle from everyone.

"Touchdown in two minutes people, get your shit together back there!" our pilot chimed. I still didn't know her name yet, but eventually I'll get it. The Director's flagship came into view out of the side ports. Damn thing still scares the hell out of me even now due to its sheer size. A noticeable shudder went through the pelican's hull as we entered the controlled atmosphere of the hangar. As orderly as tired soldiers can manage, we filed off of the ship to the greeting of the Director himself.

"Did you recover it Phoenix?" he asked. I nodded my head. "Then follow me. I have something to discuss with you. The rest of you are dismissed." He took off quickly, heading towards where the tech labs were at. Silently I followed him, not daring to think of how angry he would be at me if I asked him what was going on. We weaved and twisted through what felt like an infinite maze. Finally we stopped in front of a lab containing... Alpha! That AI presence I've felt in the back of my mind ever since we moved in. The Director stood in front of the eye reticule that ket the doors in front of us locked tight. At his gaze they parted. "Place the chip you found inside of this memory storage unit." he said motioning towards a brown storage unit with purple lights on it. It didn't look human. No, it looked more like a something you'd see from the Covenant. A small slot opened at its top where I inserted the chip, which was immediately swallowed up by the storage unit. As I pulled my hand away though, a blast went out from the thing. An EMP blast. In an almost immediate reaction, I felt myself go limp as my vision blurred. The Director stood over my unmoving form with an almost concerned look on his face. However, he didn't even offer me a hand as he said, "Get up Agent." It took me several tries, but eventually I made it to my feet. My brain was already calculating the possibilities for what had caused that blast. And it immediately became clear as to what the problem was. Whatever entity resided within that memory unit was some type of AI.

"As I was saying, the real reason you are here is to receive another upgrade for yourself. An AI fragment." the Director said.

I wasn't stunned by that announcement, not after what I had just witnessed a couple seconds ago. But I still had a question for the Director. Making sure to keep my posture relaxed, I asked, "I thought that AI's couldn't be fragmented. That it would only result in the now splintered parts to go insane at an almost instantaneous speed."

The Director pondered this for a moment before saying, "We have a 'technique' to counter that possibility. Now get going to medical lab 343 in wing 3. The doctors there are already set up for you and Tex."

I gave him a questioning glance. "Sir, are you sure you want Tex and I to be in the same area during this operation?" I asked hesitantly. The glare he gave me was enough to tell me his response. Without another word I jogged down to the lab. To my surprise the whole team was waiting. Tex gave me a playful punch on the shoulder. She asked, with just a hint of sarcasm, "Ready for this tough guy?" I smiled, before saying, "I'm always ready for whenever the docs want to use me as a test subject."

Looks of worry came at me from both Cruz and Boston. Orlando had his hand up in salute. Guess I should have expected that from someone with a military background. New Orleans, or just Orleans as i had started saying just gave me a nod of respect. I gave Boston a friendly pat on the back. Cruz hugged me, which kind of reminded me of our first augmentations. York cracked some joke I barely registered. Washington gave me a smile and clapped me on the back. Maine and South simply nodded. North gave me an encouraging nod towards the operating area.

Carolina pulled me in close before whispering in my ear, "If Tex is the only one who walks out of here alive, I'm going to kick your ass in the afterlife." Good old Carolina, nothing like being intimidated into surviving.

Sighing, I went into my operating area. A doc flipped a switch and I was immediately floating in null gravity. They turned me so I was facing Tex's face. Quite an awkward sight I must say. I heard the buzzing of surgical machines being turned on but then my vision got blurry. In order to keep myself from going under, I focused in on the details of Tex's face. For a robot, she was pretty. Blond hair, Blue eyes, and a light dash of freckles set the look. It was hard to even imagine that if you peeled about an inch of skin off, you'd hit metal. I saw them move what looked like a rather painful hexagonal pin into the base of her skull. I felt mine going in as well. Surprisingly I nothing changed. My sight didn't go all blurry, body didn't spasm, nothing. I was thinking that I had gotten away scott-free. At least until green pixels started moving onto everything. They covered the room at first, but then latched onto Tex. They moved to form tubes, that appeared almost like our veins and arteries, throughout her body. I now saw that Tex was unconscious. Then I passed out.

I was about to ask her how the surgery went when she spoke, "How are you feeling Phoenix?"

The question caught me off guard. "Uh, okay I guess. Why?" I replied. For some reason I was getting the feeling that whatever had prompted her to ask me that question was bad in nature.

Tex simply stood there, not moving. To the point where it was like she wasn't even there anymore. Then I felt a slight tug at the back of my head.

The walls around me shifted, melted away until I was simply left in what one could describe as a hub. It was one very large room, bigger than any I had yet seen. It stretched for miles in each direction I suppose, for I couldn't make out its end. Every couple of seconds, thousands of rifts in the space around me would open up. The colors ranged from pure black to white with everything in between them also there. It was like staring at a rapidly pulsating electromagnetic (EM) wavelength. Finally I realized that I had my armor on somehow even though I had woken up in only the body mesh. "Okay, what the fuck is going on here?" I asked to the dead silence. Nothing answered my request. I quickly came to the conclusion that the only way to figure out where I'm at is to see what those rifts are. I approached the spot that one kept appearing at. Cautiously I reached out and touched it.

The swirl of red felt warm to the touch. Almost as hot as what a metal sheet heated to exactly 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Wait a second, how did I know that? Images of flames and metal came to the forefront of my head. Then came various weapon calibers, UNSC weapon classifications, and... stop, stop, STOP! I fell to my knees clutching my head as it went through the entire web of information this rift contained.

After I managed to stop the massive data cataloging in my head, I retried what I had done except with a different rift. This time a blue one. Keeping my concentration, I focused on water only. Nothing else, just water. Quickly the image of water came up. I grinned. Alright, now connect water with the emotion of being calm. A transparent blue line connected the idea of water with my idea of being calm. Guess my theory on what this space is was correct. Everything in here was the massively huge catalogue of everything and anything I had ever learned or experienced.

But why would I be in here? I've never heard of a human who can do this type of thing. Shaking my head I said, "How the hell did this happen?"

"You still haven't gotten it yet?" a very familiar voice called out from behind me. Specifically, the bitch that I had no doubt had put me here.

"Tex, what the fuck have you done to me? Ome... um, your AI gave you the power to do this? I thought he was anger, not creativity?" I asked her indignantly. Knowing that Tex would most likely react badly to my question I instantly went into my fighting stance.

"I haven't done anything to you." she replied, crossing her arms.

I motioned towards the space we were in before saying, "Then how do you explain this!"

"Perhaps if you'd listen to me for a couple minutes you'd understand!" she yelled at me.

I calmed myself down as much as I could before replying, "Fine."

I bet she had on an ultra smug look underneath her armor. She turned and began walking towards the red rift I had previously touched. I could hear her sigh as she touched it, like it was the return of an old friend. Her head turned to face me. "Look, what I'm about to say will be hard to comprehend much less except for anyone. Especially someone with your IQ. " she mocked. I just stood there patiently waiting for her to continue. The sooner this experience ends, the better right? She began explaining, "While you were being operated on, your connection to the internet and my presence in the room as well as having your AI implanted into you, resulted in a very, unusual side-effect. You became an AI. Not just a fragment type either, but a full fledged AI. The AI you were supposed to receive was consumed in this process."

I started laughing my ass off. "Tex, do you think I didn't realize what I am now? I knew the instant my mind processed that a human could never catalogue every experience in their head without going insane. No, I just needed you to confirm my point on that." I said once I finally caught my breath. I reveled in the confused posture Tex presented.

"Now without further delay, can we please leave my mind?" I asked in a mockingly polite tone. I felt that same tug on the back of my head. Reality came crashing back in. It felt like what I imagine a sailor feels like when he hits a beach right before he drowns. I was breathing heavily, coughs coming in between my rapid breaths. In short, the experience sucked. "Could have," I broke out into a fit of coughs, "warned me!"

"Suck it up wimp! Good God its only a mental reaction to the inverta-thingy!" Tex mocked. Thankfully the english language was on my side this time.

"By inverta-thingy, you do mean in-vertigo right you stupid bitch?" I replied. Goddam I hate the fact that we always have our armor on (Or if you want to be more realistic, 60% of the time usually. Which is a pretty freakin high stat when you think about it.), it blocked out her reaction to my comment.

"So glad to see that Agent Texas has given away our big surprise for you Phoenix. I'm sure that you are quite, pleased, with this rather odd error." the Director said as he entered the room suddenly.

I tried to bring myself to a salute, but I could barely stand up right much less salute. "But Agent Texas has also told me about some dirty little secrets you've been sharing with her." he finished. Oh shit...this isn't good. I looked up at his green eyes, praying to whatever force has kept me alive so far not to turn its back on me now. "We can't have this continue of course, so I believe it is time to see just good you are now Phoenix."

Ow...what the! I awoke in what looked to be a command room of some sort. Taking in my surroundings, I noticed that I lacked armor, guns, and an objective of any sort. A monitor station in the middle of the room showed a the insides of a forerunner fortress with me in it. The architecture matched known forerunner installations. Scanning UNSC databases, I found the building to be a small broadcast station. Then I looked at the outside cameras. And I broke into a cold sweat. Who wouldn't when faced with a couple hundred spartan IV's? Testing out my new abilities, I tuned into the spartans radio frequency. "This is Gamma-one, charges are set. Waiting for confirmation to blow." "This is Alpha-one to Gamma-one. Confirmation is given." "Gamma-one to all squads, charges are going off in three, two, one, fire!"

A resounding boom could be heard from the front of the gates. Squads of spartans immediately charged the hole. Chatter could be heard from all of them. One line in particular caught my attention though. "All right Charlie, spread out and kill this traitor. He's the one responsible for that bombing aboard the Infinity." Well, now I know who they're hunting at least. I have to figure something out quickly. What can I work with in here? Ah. Station defenses online. Emergency status activated. Shutdown all light sources. Jam communications. Seal compound in a forcefield. Open up the armory. A grin brought itself to my face. This is going to be fun.

After searching for a few minutes, I found the armory. Accessing a couple of reports on forerunner weapons, I went with a suppressor and a light rifle. Lets go kick some ass. Each of the spartan squads was composed of ten members, all specialized towards a specific role in combat. I decided to deal with Bravo and Sigma, the scout squads, first. Hunting down Sigma, I positioned myself directly in front of them before opening fire with the suppressor. The tight hallway we were in gave them little in the way of cover. As soon as they started returning fire, I rushed them. Even if they are considered the fastest of all the spartans, I moved faster than all the Rogues and Freelancers. What chance do they have against me? At the speed time around me was going, they moved slower than snails at their slowest. After killing them, I decided to simply stick with melee. Nobody in this building could kill me in melee. I then proceeded to kill Bravo team before deciding to make the central chamber I had been in my killing ground. Sealing all doors, I Only opened ones leading into one of the hallways that ran into the chamber.

About ten minutes later, the area is all set. All the spartans are set to come through that door. Time to kill. The door opened and the lights turned back on. I had looted another set of rogue armor from one of the scouts, probably the best marksman of his group. It is black and red in a camouflage pattern. Close enough to my original set I suppose. As they entered the room, I spoke, "I have done nothing wrong other than to rightfully defend myself from your attacks thus far. My name is Collin ******** and I would peacefully request that y'all stand down and tell me what the hell is goin on here!" My anger is breaking my english down again. Stay composed Collin. Stay composed. A golden colored spartan in Air-Assault class armor put her hand up. "Surrender immediately and I can promise you that we won't kill. ONI might, but we won't." "What am I charged with?" I replied, honestly wanting to know what someone else had done to tick the UNSC off enough to send in spartans. Her tone showed her surprise as she talked, "You are under arrest for the murder of fifty spartans, two hundred marines, setting off a bomb in a ship training center, and stealing UNSC property to escape."

A particular Joker line from the game Arkham Asylum came to mind, 'Only three. I'll try harder next time. Lets say we aim for a hundred?' Unfortunately, saying that line aloud would probably result in a negative resolution to this conflict. "Look lady, I ain't done nothing wrong. In fact, I can probably prove it. Where are we right now space wise?" "We are currently floating in the system X-1205, orbiting the forerunner world of Requiem." "Now, the last system I was in was system M-4193. Now, seeing as their is nothing in the databanks about system X-1205, I'd say it is on the fringes of known space, meaning there are over 200 light years between were I last remember waking up at and here. Meaning that somebody drugged me and stowed me away aboard the ship you are based on. Also, there is the little manner of me being another spartan. Do you really think that any spartan would commit terrorism on a UNSC ship?" "Yes I do think that you liar. Now put your hands over your head and get on your knees or I start shoot-" She never finished that sentence. Furious at how easily I was being betrayed, I vented my anger upon the unfortunate spartans.

Like a tornado I rent everything in my path, ripping, tearing, ducking, weaving, shooting, and killing. Nothing withstood me. Grabbing one spartan's head with both hands, I tore it off and used it as a club. Moving fluidly, I killed several spartans with it before it burst. Jumping up, I latched my legs around two of their heads and slammed them down with the force off 100,000 men. When I finished my slaughter, the remains of almost five hundred spartans floated crater I had made during the fight. A normal person probably would have thrown up by now. I merely looked at the lake of blood and laughed. The choice has been made by the Director. He just signed his own death warrant.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: The Catalyst

Calm down Collin. There is a time and place for rage, and that time is now over. Think about how to get out of here now. Thanks to my now dead compatriots, I have a large variety of vehicles to pick over. But while a tank would be a nice touch, I need something that flies and can go orbital. A pelican. Reviewing the personnel I had killed, I found the transponder codes for the Infinity. In case the communications officer happened to be sensible, I also made sure to get the poor dunce's name as well. One Armando Blout.

Powering up and taking off, I set the pelican on an immediate course for the Infinity. My plan is to land in their hangar and from there find an appropriate vessel capable of helping me destroy the Director. "Infinity to Gamma 5, status report." the intercom said. "This is Gamma 5 to Infinity, mission was successful. Rogue agent has been killed. Lost most of our task-force though. Damn son-of-a-bitch." I replied. The voice on the other end took awhile to hesitantly ask, "Did he get Miri?" I grinned beneath my helmet. Let's ruin this guy's day by telling the truth. As sadly as I could, I told him, "Yeah. Yeah, he did. The mother fucker sliced her up into bits and pieces." At this I heard what could've been crying from his end. He managed to get it together after a few moments, "I... at least you guys put him down. This is why I don't trust ONI dammit. They create badasses capable of taking out any normal spartan without batting an eye, and then they decide to try and kill them just for the fun of it. Just come back to the ship Armando. We all deserve a break today."

Keeping silent, I flew into hangar B-7. You know, because having five hundred hangars isn't overdoing it or anything like that. Turning off all the systems, I climbed out of the craft and made my way over to the elevators. With all the people rushing around doing their daily business I silently slipped into the background. Listened to the ship's various automated functions, discovered current offensives on Requiem designed to rid the world of the its AI protectors. How a certain Mater Chief miraculously stopped the Didact from destroying everyone on Earth. How Cortana was now dead. The ending to a story I already knew. Goddam, I really wish Cortana hadn't died. She would've made a perfect teacher. Other than the psychotic episodes she had. No time to dwell on that thought though. At least Cortana went out a hero, unlike me.

This thing is freakin huge! Learning the floor plans was relatively easy, but just trying to traverse through the various armories, bio-tech labs, training areas, and hangars is a living hell. Fortunately, despite my extreme height, I found that some spartan IV's had reacted to the human growth hormone procedure wonderfully past expectations. Yes, these mutants are rare, but they are also common enough to simply give me a sparing glance. Using my various web links, I quickly found a way to hack the Infinity's firewall. Looking through the hangar logs, I discovered that multiple space worthy frigates are being held in hangar A-1. Great, the one located directly next to the spartan's quarters. Fuck, how the hell am I supposed to get through there? Wait a second, what is this lab located next to it? Crap, that is Halsey's lab. Guess I'm paying the good doctor a visit then.

Just in case she had protection (which for her would be understandable), I stopped by a nearby armory for a DMR and a shotgun. Assuming that I ended up in combat, the DMR could be turned into a near automatic weapon. Unless they had modified their shields, spartan IV's would die in about five head shots, give-or-take. Anyone who got too close for comfort might take a shotgun to the face. Satisfying as hand to hand combat is, caution for civilian lives gets tossed to the wind. And the doc is too important for me to kill. Heck, knowing her anti-ONI attitude, she might even be a possible ally.

Taking it slow, I walked straight to her lab. Upon finding it, I realized that I should definitely try to end any conflict I came upon as soon as possible. Halsey's lab should have been listed 'the monolith'. From the viewing window I'm looking through, I see an endless mass of tubes, wires, various elevators/stairs, weapons, armor models, and in the center of it all.. a blob of grey. The blob is constantly writhing as if being shocked repeatedly, as it hovers above a pedestal. Opening the door to Halsey's lab, I find myself not heading towards the exit into the hangar, but towards the blob. Something about it kept tickling at the back of my mind. Foremost what the blob actually is. Running a quick diagnostic analysis, I realize why this blob drew me in. It is linked to Precursor technology. And to me.

The technology in front of me bears my specific genetic code somehow. Intertwined with cybernetics. Ready for its new master and wearer. Shuddering, I realize that it had purposely added cybernetics into the DNA samples within it. Guess I'm no longer considered human. I mean, I wouldn't even be able to interface with the damn thing if I was still human. I wonder how I activate it. Perhaps touch? Reaching out with my right hand, I press it against the side of the blob. Immediately the writhing stops. Then it slowly reached back. Not literally of course, but slowly my current armor seemingly dissolved as the blob crawled up my arm. Reaching out with my other hand, I now had it traveling up both arms. Almost with a sentience of its own, the armor (It must be armor, otherwise it wouldn't be covering me instead of simply melding with my body.) started forming small raised patches of grey octagons, that haven't overlapped yet.

The feeling of the armor melding with every cell within my body could be compared to warm water running down your body in a shower. It stretched itself out, formulating its size so as to equal my bodies own. In effect, it is becoming a second skin. Then it my face covered over, and all went dark.

I awake to the optical sensors that aren't entirely separate from my own eyes. In fact, they almost feel like my own eyes. Just with a green tint. Ga, I feel like I had a drinking spree last night. Lifting my arm, I find instead of spartan style armor, a strange grey armor. Laced throughout it are lines of green. The design itself is extremely streamlined. Formatted perfectly to my body, and made up of octagons. Integration is seamless, no large gaps. Perfectly smooth shoulders from what I can tell. Chest area is slightly raised above the rest of the armor. Probably thicker plates to protect the chest cavity. Legs resemble the arms, just formatted for my legs. I don't have a mirror to view the face, but it is probably perfectly formatted to my face. No trouble with breathing at least. Time to move. In one fluid movement I'm off the ground and on my feet, and staring down at a very intrigued doctor. "So, this is the my dear colleague the Director's prodigy?" she asked.

"Ma'am, I'd prefer to not have you die. So, with respect, I'll have to ask you to leave me at least twenty minutes till you call the guards." I countered, aiming my DMR at her head. Her face seemed to reflect an almost smug look. "What makes you think that I'm going to call my spartans to their deaths? Especially with John on board? John might be able to kill you, he is rather known for killing the immortal, but not until you've killed most of the UNSC's remaining armed forces. No, I'm here to propose a deal with you." "Oh, and may I ask what this deal would involve?" "I'll help you track down the Director, and you get to kill him. In exchange, you and the Freelancers and the rest of the Rogues leave the military. Go rogue, become mercenaries, whatever. Just so long as you don't serve ONI." I grin underneath my second skin, "Halsey, what the hell did you think I was going to do after killing the Director? I'm willing to take this deal."

Halsey to be sincerely pleased by my statement. "Good, then I suppose you will be interested in what resources I can give. Right now there are fifteen highly trained, disillusioned ODST squads that are coordinating with me to destroy the Director. Using them to run hit and run attacks ought to bring him out of hiding eventually." I brought my hand up for her to stop before saying, "This is all useless unless you have someone on the inside to tell you when and where his supplies are coming from." Halsey tipped her head as an acknowledgment of the flaw, but replied, "Yes, you need someone on the inside. Such as a certain Freelancer named Connecticut."

"Wait a second. You have Connie working for you?" I ask in disbelief. Halsey shook her head, "No, but I due to one of the ODST captains, I know where she and the rest of the your team will be at during their R'n'R time." "Why Connie out of all of them?" I asked, already partially knowing the answer. "She has exhibited signs of... distrust towards the Director. All you need to do is confirm her suspicions are correct and she will most likely help you." No, it shouldn't be like this. I can't be the one who catalyzes this reaction. Yes, it has to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong. "Where is their R'n'R taking place at?" I ask, remarkably calm for a man who had just damned his closest friends. "A small planet west of the Bungie Traverse named New Eden. They will be there in two weeks. With the cruiser I'm giving you, you should be able to make it there in about a week." "I'll leave right now then." "Thought you would. I already had the cruiser ready to go. Your troops are on board, as is the captain and his crew. You might want to also hide your new suit. Makes you stand out a bit." "Point taken."

Well, time to test this thing. One, two, three, pull in. Hugh, it worked. Looking at me, you'd never be able to tell the difference between me and the next Spartan unless you knew every single Spartan IV's face by heart. Impossible considering how many of them there are on the Infinity. Looking at my skin for the first time in days was an unusual joy. The clothes the suit had generated was strikingly reminiscent of a naval officers, just instead of grey and blueish, this one was pure red and black, with the rank of commander on the left breast area.

Finally I made it to the hangar Halsey had pointed me towards, at which point I simply gawked at the ship that was now by all rights my own. The Savant, a large cruiser that managed to hold a hangar, had three MAC cannons installed, three plasma turrets, and most importantly an ops center. Smile on hand, I purposely strode forward, determined to play my part in the Director's downfall.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Best of Us

"All Freelancers report to the briefing room immediately." said the Director. York hurriedly got out of his bed and got his armor on. Strapping his helmet into place, he connected with the squad's personal channel. "What are we doing Carolina?" Connie asked. Maine actually spoke up for once, a rare thing for the silent man, "Yes Carolina. What are we doing? We should already be down on the beach like usual. Instead we've been drilling constantly. What for?"

York chuckled as silently as he could. Maine wasn't a talker, but when he did talk one found a blunt and rather intelligent man underneath the stoic silence. Surprisingly Orlando had cracked his shell of silence somehow, but no one else could talk to him. Us and the Rogues are getting along quite well after a couple months of constant missions and training. Boston and me, Orleans and North Dakota, Cruz and Connecticut. Boston had turned into a wise cracking joker on a level with me and North Dakota. Orleans was that lovable gregarious person everyone adored.

Cruz, Cruz is something else. She Never got over Phoenix turning and betraying us. For her it was a personal blow. A sign that somehow she had caused him to go renegade. Her and Carolina both trained obsessively for the moment when they have to face him.

'Can I blame them?' York thought to himself. Not really. Once we do track the bastard down, it will take every ounce of our ability to defeat him. Phoenix was always better, faster, and stronger. Despite his violent temperament, he had been the glue keeping us together. His absence has created a power vacuum that Tex and Carolina have been vying for ever since. Now an insufferable hatred exists between the two. And Texas is simply better. try as she might, Carolina is no match for the other woman. Which has led to a very long list of consequences, but most troubling is the overbearing drive to beat Texas no matter the personal cost.

Breaking out into a light jog, York reached the briefing room in a timely manner. What he found was a 3-dimensional super-skyscraper colored in purple and blue. He saw the rest of the Freelancers heads turn in his direction. Hah, good to be back isn't it. After the grenade stunt that Maine had pulled after a particularly bad training session with Tex, York had ended up losing his left eye. Try as Orleans might, nothing could repair the damage done without injuring him even more thoroughly. "Hey, don't be so quick to give away my job." York said as he entered. Despite being injured, nothing is going to stop a Freelancer from destroying a traitorous teammate. Plus Washington is an absolute wuss when it comes to lock-picking and fighting in general.

Carolina as usual expressed her worry, "I thought you were in the hospital?" York replied casually, "According to their records, I am." "How's your eye?" "It's okay. The docs are letting me out tomorrow." "Tomorrow huh?" Washington muttered. York said, "Look, I couldn't let you guys have all the fun without me. Besides you guys need someone to get you in." Washington moved closer to Carolina. "Look I'm happy to see him to," Washington said, "but this mission, I don't know..." "Carolina replied, "Look, if York says he's good, then he's good." "It's your call boss." Washington said.

Carolina walked up next to him, before saying, "Your good, right?" "Okay look, I said I was okay." York responded, "Good might be overselling it a little." Then the Director as usual broke the chatter. As he ran down the mission details, York couldn't help but wonder, where are the Rogues? Surely two different targets would be easier to take on if they helped us. Right?

As we all hurried to our pelicans, York asked Carolina about it. "Why aren't the Rogues helping us on this mission?" She turned and faced him before saying, "The Director didn't say anything about it, but we've got that former Rogues white team on the loose down there as well. They're taking care of White Team." "Why them and not us?" I ask.

Despite wearing a helmet, Carolina still got off that same look of, "Are you stupid?" "The Director wants to keep it in the house so to speak. He wants the Rogues to kill their own to prove their loyalty." "Wait, but White Team went MIA before the teams even met." "That doesn't mean they didn't know the other team pre-conscription. Everyone but Cruz knows someone on White Team." "Well, shit. What if our Rogues don't have the will to kill them?" "That is what Cruz is for. She has no attachments to White Team and will follow through with the mission." York whistled at the thought of that, before saying, "The Director has this all figured out doesn't he?" "Yes, he does. Now move your ass. We're making planetfall in thirty minutes."

York couldn't help but feel slightly regretful as he stepped into the Pelican. Looking across the hangar, he could just barely make out the shapes of the Rogues. They have no idea what they're in for do they? Shaking his head, York silently strapped into a seat. What if this is all a trap? What if we don't find what we're looking for, but instead find him? Will we be able to kill Phoenix? Can we kill the best of us?

POV: Collin Ingram a.k.a Agent Phoenix

My lord if this city doesn't look like a futuristic Los Angeles. Lovely beaches, occasionally warm water, and a bunch of great restaurants. Of course said restaurants are now fifty stories in the air, but that is besides the point. Checking the tactical display again, I count down the time until atmospheric entry for my friends. Five, four, three, two, one, and right on time two pelicans drop out at the coordinates my little bug had given me. Amazing how much information one can get simply by listening into the flight control center on the Mother of Invention. The third one came in a few seconds after the first two. It headed straight for the ambush sight.

Thanks to Halsey's spy network, catching up with White Team had been surprisingly easy. Then again, what should I have expected out of them? They were actively looking for someone to help them fight the Director. When they found I offered them my help they had initially reacted with caution, which I don't begrudge them for. After all, who expects your enemies top killer to suddenly switch sides? But I did win their trust, or at least cooperation due to one special man. Victor Romero, one of my friends from Earth. A man who I had treated almost like a brother during middle school. He had ended up leading White Team.

White Team actually ended up being full of people I knew. Samantha a person I barely remember from Hamilton who was best buds with Orlando. Boston and I were both friends of Mason, who was another football player. And then there was Alex, the school genius in middle school who had almost dated Orleans in the 8th grade. They had lost one of their members, Caitlyn, my former girlfriend from California during the experimentation time period. Her bones had snapped under the weight of her new muscles and collapsed her entire body into a ball. Such a horrible way for her die.

I told them of my plan to turn Connie to our side when the Freelancers and Rogues stopped her for training and R&R. What I hadn't planned on was the fact that my other operations had worked too well. We had captured the engineer the Director was using to create the AI's out of Alpha. But then the ODST's I have under my command had nowhere else to put it except in the corporate headquarters of a wealthy gun manufacturing company. The CEO of the company is also one of the board members in ONI. He fortunately holds a deep resentment of the Director's broad security clearance and lack of scrutiny.

This headquarters is unfortunately also on the R&R planet as well. It was then that I realized I was watching season nine all over again. Knowing that my actions had caused it. Tracking the second pelican, I saw it take a swerve right towards the convoy a few clicks west of me. In order to do that it has to come beneath where I'm waiting. As it came directly beneath me, I slowed time down. Grinning at how slow the Pelican is going and also how incredibly stupid what I'm about to do is, I jump. Falling twenty feet, I land upright. And then I stumble forwards. Fuck... I instantly hit the ground, uh, top of the pelican and grip onto the metal safety rungs. Knowing I can't keep myself at this pace of movement forever, I grab the assault rifle on my back and open up on the cockpit of the pelican. Then I let time go back to normal.

The pelican hit the ground and instantly blew up. Fortunately I had already jumped when it did. Unfortunately, I hit the ground at plus 60 mph even with that. Checking my bodies status, most of me was in the red. Thank the lord for this suit. It is the only thing keeping me together at this point. Even as I watch, the status for my body starts climbing higher. The suit is healing the injuries faster than any medi-gel could. Heading towards the wreckage of the pelican, I see North Dakota slowly get out. Wyoming must have fallen out of the pelican as it hit the ground, because he is lying about twenty feet from the wreck. And Connecticut is crawling out of the burnt out pelican. Going invisible, I silently watch as North checks on Wyoming and Connecticut slowly surveys the area. Ever so slowly, I move to the edge of the clearing we landed in.

Then I loose a direct comm line to Connie. "I'm over here." I say, masking my voice over in several different voices of various higher and lower pitches at the same time. Her head immediately turns in my direction. "Yes, I'm over here." She slowly paces towards the alley I went into, then she turns as if to contact North. "I wouldn't recommend that. My scope is squarely leveled on North's head right now. You tell him anything and he dies. Understood?" She nods her head and walks over to where I'm at.

Once she is in the alley, standing in front of me now, back turned to the pelican I let my invisibility shimmer down. "Hello Connie." I say in a casual voice, as if we were simply hanging out at the training room, "It has been a while hasn't it?" "Yes, it has been Phoenix." she replies, "What is it that you want? Because you obviously haven't killed us yet." "I just wanted to let you know a little secret. The Director betrayed me, NOT the other way around." She turns to look at me finally, and gasps. "Yeah, I've taken on a new look since turning into a real rogue."

POV Connecticut:

Connecticut's sensors were out, leaving her with only her normal eyesight. She doubted that even with the sensors she would be able to tell if this thing in front of her was human. The form was definitely humanoid, but this couldn't be armor that the thing was wearing. No, it is way too skin tight for that. It might actually be its skin for all she knew. How could this be Phoenix. The thing must have noticed here apparent disgust. "Sorry," it said, before turning into the Phoenix she had known before his betrayal, "is this better?"

Stumbling back, Connecticut almost sent off a burst to North. But she had the sinking feeling that if Phoenix wanted them all dead, they'd be dead by now. "What happened to you?" she asked. He shrugged in return. "The Director happened. I knew he would eventually betray me. I just didn't figure it would happen as fast as it did." "No, you betrayed us!" Connecticut said indignantly. Phoenix chuckled, before bringing out a dataslate. Handing it to her, he said, "Read these then Connie, if that is what you truly believe. Read all of it and then tell me who betrayed whom. At the very end of this is a way to contact me if you finally see the truth." With that, he vanished.

Connecticut looked down at the dataslate, and with a sigh began reading through its contents. Though it would be many months later before the plan came to fruition, Connecticut would look back upon this day as the moment when everything first began. And she would smile at the thought even in her last moments.


	7. Chapter 7

Orleans POV:

I don't want to think about what we are doing. To do so would be to admit that I'm doing something wrong. That I'm killing one of my best friends. A man who had never wished for our deaths. Who has never actually even threatened us at all. Yet here we are, his most trusted of friends, ready... not even ready, eager to kill him. Phoenix, the one who led us. The one who always seemed to have a solution for every answer. The one who always kept our team just a step above everyone else, even the freelancers, and now because of the Director here we are braying for his blood. Wanting nothing more than to sink my knife as deeply into his heart as I can. Then I'll twist it, and twist it some more.

No, no, no... it isn't right and I know it. I could sense the lie on the Director's voice. There is something about it that simply doesn't seem right to me. The real question is how do I convince the others to end this mad quest? I know Boston and Phoenix were close before his "betrayal". And while Orlando believes the Director word for word, even he has started raising some doubts as to wether Phoenix abandoned us or if we abandoned Phoenix. Cruz however, well she ate up the Director's sweet little lie. If I mention anything about Phoenix to her, she gets that look in her eye that tells me to back the fuck off. No, she wouldn't be convinced unless I had solid proof that Phoenix hadn't done anything wrong. Hell, even then it would be a gamble as to wether she would believe me or make a nice, spartan sized indention in the nearest wall.

Her eyes have gone from their dark-brown color to an inhuman glowing green. It's like her eyes are neon or something. The rest of us have had similar transformations as well. Mine turned a glowing blue, and Orlando has flecks of gold across his blue eyes. Boston eyes are a glowing purple. Something about our implants intertwining with our DNA even more than they previously were. Sort of like what happened to Phoenix with his time control implant, but slow and methodical (as such we ended up not having any side-effects (other than the glowing eyes)).

"Drop in ten!" our pilot barked out. "Everyone get ready for a fight." Boston said as he checked the rounds in his clip, "If we do find Phoenix, he won't go down easy. And don't get any bright ideas to take him on mono e'mono." he finished, pointedly looking at Cruz. She didn't meet his gaze. Her eyes are staring at their reflection on the blade of her sword, specially forged by her with the help of Carolina. The broadsword's edges are coated in diamond, giving the sword an incredibly sharp bite to it. In Cruz's hands though, it looked as though she is holding a small pretend sword. I think she meant for it to be this way considering that she is all about speed and stealth. An overly large sword would be diverging from her purpose. Gah, stay focused.

The landing door opened and we rushed out, Orlando and Boston rushing out first setting up firing lines. I followed behind them. Cruz just stood at the entrance. "I'll find him." she said in a barely audible whisper. Then she was gone. So much for not taking Phoenix on singlehandedly. Boston just shook his head, "Why do I even try? Alright, Orlando move up behind me. I have point, Orleans keep our backside clear." "Understood." we called out. Boston moved up quickly, taking cover behind a few metal boxes, likely air conditioners for the building below us. A shadow shifted behind one of them in my peripheral to the right of me. "Contact at 2 o'clock!" I said, right before our area lit up with gunfire. Music to my ears.

"I'm counting around five contacts!" Orlando shouted. Boston fired a quick clip over cover blindly before asking, "Any sign of Phoenix?" "No, but..." Orlando trailed on, "Boston, if I'm seeing things right, we're fighting white team." Well ain't today just cheerful. Two targets that are so freaking powerful in their own right that all our attention should be focused on each. This is why we needed support from the freelancers. Too bad the support team had their pelican go up in smoke before even hitting the convoy. Dammit. Our team kicked into badass mode.

Ducking out of cover, I let off a full clip of my assault rifle at the enemy. They all ducked back into cover and Orlando moved off to the left. I could see him pulling out his rocket launcher. Time to bring down the house I guess. boston started providing covering fire and I moved up to another piece of cover. Just in time to find myself standing right next to a member of white team. Who had a shotgun. Dammit. I raised my rifle up but his shotgun was already raised. I expected him to finish me off, yet he batted my rifle out of my hands. Stumbling backwards, I brought out my pistol and started shooting at him. The damn bullets did little to no damage to the advancing rogues shields. He brought up what looked like a plasma pistol; plasma pistols don't arc blue electricity out their front ends though. Seeing what was coming from behind him though, I almost laughed gleefully as I rolled to my left. The guy turned just in time to see Orlando aim the rocket launcher at him.

But no body flew high up in the air. Staring in amazement at the sight before me, I knew this operation was blown to all hell. After all, if your only weapon capable of taking out the main threat is removed from our possession, you're pretty screwed right? Orlando was piled up in a heap a few feet away from the launcher. Which happened to be in thee hands of a living grim reaper. Phoenix has arrived.

Turning my attention back to the guy with the stun gun, I barely dodge his next shot. Knowing that my only chance was to either get out of his gun's range or get in close, I jumped forward. Pushing off my left foot as he turned towards me, I rolled with the jump to the right and turned to face an elbow coming at my head. Stepping backwards, I jabbed forwards at the gun knocking it out of his hands.

The guy bellowed aloud and charged me. He caught me off balance and my feet went out from underneath me. Rolling to the side just as a heavily armored boot slammed down onto the roof. Pulling my legs under me, I was forced to shoulder roll again as my opponent's brutal strikes drove me back. Standing up again, I caught a full on uppercut to the face. Everything temporarily blacked out. My fingers don't seem to be working quite right. They can't seem to stay still. Getting up first to my knees, Then only one knee, then staring at the same opponent. His black hued armor reminiscent of an ancient executioner's suit. Red visor menacingly looking down at me. Off in the distance, I could see Boston kneeling next to Orlando. His battle rifle punctuating our team's desperation. I couldn't see Phoenix, yet it was as though I could. That chill whenever he enters the room, only ever matched by Tex and Cruz.

My executioner was now standing fully over me. A breeze in the wind said, "I'm sorry Victoria." Then something happened. Trying to at least give him the middle finger before I died, I found my hand still at my side. Same with the rest of my limbs. I could only watch passively as Boston was slowly surrounded by the other members of white team. Out of the shadows behind him came Phoenix. I wish Boston had put up more of a fight before he got knocked out. Considering my current situation however it would be hypocritical to complain about his screw up.

Where is Cruz though? Phoenix's hand shot out at an unseen target and suddenly there she was in all her furious glory. Cruz ran full out at him. Slashing in all directions seemingly at once, her figure covered ground towards Phoenix. The whizzing in the air testament to how focused she was on keeping her defense up against him. It was like watching two gods of myth facing off against each other. Phoenix played a dodging game with Cruz. At least until blood started running down the side of his arm. A red haze from all the smoke mixing with the red giant's rays to produce a sky of blood.

Phoenix stepped in close past one of Cruz's strikes and Cruz was know on her butt a few feet away from where she had been. Calm as all hell, Phoenix walked over to her. Cruz wasn't done yet though. A bellow hardly befitting any animal, much less a rogue rang out, pent up anger and sorrow mixing into a potent mixture. The air was no longer whizzing, now it was buzzing incessantly, blade point moving faster than my eyes can keep track of. Phoenix rocked back into a defensive stance; even then blood began pooling out of his upper body. Cruz's training is paying itself off right now, all those hours she had been in the training room paying off in this moment. At least until Phoenix grabbed her sword arm. Wincing to myself as he forcefully ripped the blade from her hand.

Dammit, I need to get in there and help her! Still nothing from my limbs though. Taking a look at white team, I could see them staring at the fighting with a calmness that even I can respect. Looking back at the fight again, I took in the entirety of how badly beat up both of the combatants are. Phoenix was probably going to have those scars on him for life if he made it out of here at all. Cruz was shaking, hand clenching her side, half of her helmet completely gone. Her hair out of place and dark red goop spread slightly throughout it. Now it was simply hand to hand fighting. No sword, no outside help. Mono e mono. Strutting forward, Phoenix struck out with the force of a lightning bolt and the speed of a bullet.

Cruz blocked and parried like a champ. Once her balance was gained again, blows began evening out between the two of them. Phoenix was still the speedier of the two, yet Cruz's growing fight instincts were allowing her to predict his movements in time. Finally Phoenix unleashed his full power. You could always tell when he does that. It is as if you're seeing multiple people occupying the same spot at the same time. Cruz's head shot backwards, her body turning to deflect his reigning blows. I saw her stumble and finally she tumbled to the ground, as Phoenix stopped, even jerked back it seems. It only took a moment to see why. A rather large dagger was lodged in his shoulder. Cruz's last gamble.

Pausing slightly, he pulled the dagger out and with an odd sort of respect placed it back into the unconscious girl's sheath. I can feel myself losing it. The light seems to be dimming. My last view of that horrible night were of something being placed in Cruz's armor pouch.


End file.
